#008 Aug 1992

THE ISEA NEWSLETTER # 8, AUGUST 1992
Editors: Wim van der Plas, Dirk Boon (Holland)
Correspondents: Yoshiyuki Abe (Japan), Roger Malina (US), Ivan Pope (UK),
ISEA, POB 60103, 9703 BC Groningen, The Netherlands
Tel 31-50-425254, Fax 31-75-701906
Email ISEA@RUG.NL or A430WYNA@DIAMOND.SARA.NL
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CONTENTS
Editorial
SIGRAPH Meeting ISEA/ISAST Wim van der Plas
TISEA Ross Harley
Manifestation for the Unstable Media IV V2 Organisation
Lecture by Collis H Davis Wim van der Plas
Studio for Creative Inquiry Carl E. Loeffler
AI/Music Meetings Eduardo Reck Miranda
Sound Installation Edward Osborn
Multimedia Communications Dorothy Phillips
Graphics Workshop Steve B.
Computers in Art & Design Conference Steve Saltzberg
Calendar
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EDITORIAL
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Recently, the annual reports June 1990 - June 1992 have been mailed to
all ISEA members. As can be learned from the report, our activities are
accumulating rapidly. Also, it can be learned that your contribution
remains essential to us. We thank all members for the faith shown and we
ask all of you to remain with us, yes, it would be appreciated very much
if you could find us more members, make your institute a member, etc.
A number of new members came along as a result of the meeting held at
Siggraph in Chicago on July 30.
SIGGRAPH MEETING ISEA/ISAST
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Wim van der Plas
The meeting was set up by Roman Verostko, chair of FISEA '93 (Minneapolis,
USA). It was a joint meeting of ISEA and ISAST, the International Society
for the Arts, Science and Technology. Approximately 70 people turned up.
For ISEA the speakers were:
Wim van der Plas with a summary of the annual reports
Ross Harley & Gary Warner reporting on TISEA 92
Roman Verostko on FISEA 93
For ISAST:
Craig Harris on ASTN
Roger Malina on Leonardo
Some of the points raised during the discussion:
-Roman Verostko indicated that people start getting confused by the
abbreviations used for the ISEA symposia. Until now, the name of the
symposium: International Symposium on Electronic Art, is preceded by the
first letter of the number of the symposium. So TISEA means Third sym-
posium, Fisea means Fourth and Fifth, the Sixth is going to be called
SISEA, etc. Instead, it is now proposed to call all symposia 'ISEA',
followed by the year.
The board of the Inter-Society agrees that this is probably a good idea.
It means that both the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts and the
symposia (that are coordinated by the Inter-Society) use the same abb
reviation. This seems to be no problem: the Special Interest Group
Graphics of ACM is called Siggraph, and so are the conferences they
organize. Nobody seems to be terribly confused by this. Since FISEA 93
(the Fourth symposium) is already being announced, it is proposed to call
the Fifth symposium ISEA 94, the Sixth ISEA 95, etc.
-Antti Kari of the University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki, Finland,
announced that Helsinki is a potential candidate for ISEA 94. Of the
other European candidates for '94, Koln (Germany) has withdrawn, while
Sofia (Bulgaria), while also announcing its candidacy, has not yet send
in an official proposal. Montreal, Canada, also expressed interest in or-
ganizing one of the future symposia.
-Simon Penny called for proposals for the Siggraph 93 Art Show (see ISEA
Newsletter #7)
-Copper Giloth pointed at the position available for the Art Show Chair
for Siggraph 94
-Wim van der Plas called candidates for the position of board member of
ISEA. (From ISEA Newsletter #7: Candidates for the ISEA Board or members
that wish to nominate other members are invited to submit their names and
a short resume c.v. to ISEA before September 1, 1992. Candidates must
understand that members of the ISEA Board are not paid.)
TISEA
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Ross Harley
Sydney, Australia, 9-13 november 1992
The Third International Symposium on Electronic Art (TISEA) is shaping up
to be one of the most exciting events of its kind to be held in Australia.
An international forum for artists, scientists and critics working in the
field of electronic art, TISEA promises to provide an excellent oppor-
tunity to critically evaluate the role and effect of new technologies in
contemporary art and culture. Planning for the event has been underway
since the last Symposium was held in the Netherlands in November 1990.
The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is the host
organisation for this five-day event, which will take place in Sydney 9-13
November 1992.
The TISEA Coordinating Committee has devised a conference program that
will bring together the work of electronic artists, critics, scientists
and technologists from around the world. The five-day program includes:
--2 days of workshops and courses
--3 days of papers, panels and poster sessions
--a large exhibition program mounted in some of Sydney's best galleries
and museums
--a 2 hour program of electronic theatre
--an evening of electronic art performances
--a two-day public workshop entitled "Being in Nothingness: VR in Pers-
pective" examining state-of-the-art VR technologies, applications,
theory and practice
Some of the participants to date include:
Artsnet (Australian Electronic Arts Network)
Cynthia Beth Rubin (Photomedia)
Simon Biggs (Interactive installation)
David Blair ("Wax or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees")
Luc Courchesne (Conversational interactivity)
Anna Couey (Cybercultures Networking)
Cyberdada (Performance installation)
Char Davies (Computer imaging)
Acha Debela (Photomedia)
Stewart Dickson (Stereolithography)
Brian Evans (Digital tonality)
Tessa Elliot (Sensed space environment)
Maria Fernandez ("Globalisation of Culture")
Ingeborg Fulepp ("Local Wisdom in the Global Village")
Madge Gleeson (Laser-prints)
Jennifer Hall ("Out of Body Theatre")
Jean-Pierre Hebert (Artists software)
Eduardo Kac (Telepresence)
Myron Kreuger (Artificial reality, Keynote Address)
Don Herbison Evans (Computers and Choreography)
Roger Malina (Leonardo)
Jon McCormack (Artificial evolution)
Stewart McSherry (Ink-jet prints)
Margaret Minsky (Feeling and Seeing)
Noralyn Newmark and Bogdan Koca ("Diagnosing the Computer User")
Simon Penny ("Virtual Bodybuilding")
Beverley Reiser ("Surfing Data Space")
Henry See (Hypercard interactive)
Karl Sims (Artificial evolution)
Stelarc (Virtual arm)
Wim van der Plas (ISEA)
Roman Verostko ("Art and the Algorithm")
VNS Matrix (Cyber-feminist manifesto)
McKenzie Wark ("Planet of Noise")
TISEA is also in close contact with an International Board of Advisors,
made up of artists, scientists and scholars who have been involved in
previous Symposia. FISEA 93, to be held in Minneapolis 3-7 November, is
currently being planned by Roman Verostko, Program Chair FISEA 93.
Three TISEA Newsletters have been scheduled. Number 1 was a Call for
Participation, and was widely distributed in February. Over 500 proposals
have been received, and participants are currently being communicated with
regarding their involvement.
Newsletter 2 was distributed mid-June, and features an overview of the
program and pre-registration information. Number 3 is scheduled for
September, and will publish the final program and reigistration form.
TISEA has secured some of the best venues in Sydney for the program of
Exhibitions, Workshops and Courses, Papers and Panels, Poster sessions,
Electronic Theatre and Performance. The Art Gallery of New South Wales is
the main conference location, with rooms also available at the Botanical
Gardens nearby. Other venues include the Sydney Opera House, the Museum of
Contemporary Art, the Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, the
Australian Centre for Photography, Ars Multiplicata, Black Galleries, and
The Performance Space.
The Keynote Speaker is Myron Kreuger--familiar to many as the inventor of
"artificial reality", maker of "unencumbered" virtual reality systems and
author of a large body of literature on the subject. We are currently
negotiating with a number of institutions (including the Australian Film
Television and Radio School) to provide him with the technology-intensive
studio and equipment that he requires to make an exhibit for TISEA.
Other speakers in the program will cover a broad range of topics, from
those of our conference themes--"Whither Cultural Diversity in the Global
Village", and "Art and the Algorithm"--to those of interactivity, ar-
tificial evolution, networking cybercultures, "surfing data space" and
virtual body building.
The Symposium is able to accommodate 350 delegates from around the world
to participate in the week's events. Limited places are also available for
a small number of workshops and courses, which cover an equally exciting
range of areas, from digital audio to virtual reality, from computer
graphics to CD-ROM.
The Exhibitions program will present to the public the work of over 20
artists in eight locations. Rather than showing work in a survey-style
fashion, TISEA will exhibit a number of works by a relatively small number
of artists in gallery conditions (there will be no "foyer" artshow). In
addition to this there will be an artists' slideshow located for the
duration of TISEA at the Australian Center for Photography.
An extensive catalogue is being produced. It will contain all the materi-
als of the Symposium under one cover, including abstracts of papers, full
programming information, a series of catalogue essays, and information and
images pertaining to all the exhibitions.
Cost of registration is $AUD375. A pre-registration discount of $ AUD325
is available to all who register before 14 September. Cost of individual
workshops will be announced in the September Newsletter.
There is a limited time to make applications to Electronic Theatre, Poster
Sessions, or the Artists Slideshow. Please contact the TISEA ofice direc-
tly if you wish to receive further information about proposals, registrat-
ion and final program details.
We have also secured some package deals for discounted airfares and
accommodation. LA return is approx $US1,100, NY return approx $ US1,275
and Paris return is approx $US1,500. Further details and bookings can be
made at Arthur Cooke Travel, fax 61.2.211 0180.
Funding and assistance for this important event has been provided by ANAT,
the Australia Council, the University of New South Wales College of Fine
Arts, the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts and the Australian Film
Commission. In addition, a large amount of in-kind sponsorship has been
offered by a number of companies, including Sony, Philips and Apple.
TISEA is a large biennale-style event that has an enormous level of
support from the electronic art community. If you are interested in
attending the Symposium or if you want further information, please contact
Ross Harley, Director TISEA
PO Box A307, Sydney South, NSW 2000, Australia
Tel: 61.2.360 5607 Fax: 61.2.360 2943 Email: anat@peg.pegasus.oz.au
MANIFESTATION FOR THE UNSTABLE MEDIA IV
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V2 Organisation
September 26th-October 4th, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
The annual festival of the V2-Organisation is this year focussed to the
influence of electronic media on visual arts and architecture. We would
like to establish a relation between art and architecture, because both
have come across similar problems. There is a newly created electronic
space where immateriality rules. The desintegration of traditional time
and space questions our rapidly vanishing social structures (social,
political and cultural) as constructed last centuries and which have
always been the motivation for art and architecture. In different ways the
artwork is under question. Traditional relations and the hierarchy between
the artwork, the observer and the artist are put to question by an artform
that is time based and interactive. The shift is from a closed decision-
defined work to an open and non-defined system, from object oriented art
to a context and observer oriented art.
The fragmentation caused by the new media devaluates ideology (as a base
for society) or better put: it makes it possible for all ideologies to be
valid at the same time. The western cities with their pluriform content in
both ethnical and religious aspect show this already. How does all this
affect our architecture? How can our art and architecture deal with the
immaterial tendencies in our society that seems to deny the body or gives
a different view on the human body as being a big failure and far from
sufficient in the frame of the possibilities that new technologies give
us. Or should we see these developments more possitive and cross new
frontiers by applying the new technologies as prosthesis that can help
us cross these borders? How can we establish an art and architecture that
deals with the new conceptions of time and space?
Symposium.
On Friday October 2nd an international group of artists, architects and
writers will discuss issues as mentioned above. Participators to this
symposium are: Daniel Libeskind(BRD), Lebbeus Woods(US), Derrick de
Kerckhove(CND), Kees Christiaanse(NL) and Florian Roetzer(BRD). The
chairman of the symposium is Wim Nijenhuis(NL), researcher at the univer-
sity of Utrecht(NL).
Interactive Artworks
An exhibition os artworks will be presented at the V2 building. The works
demonstrate what kind of art the new conceptions of time and space as
performed in electronic space could bring. Most of them also question the
traditional relationship between the artwork-observer-artist. The works
vary from VR based works to videoworks. Participating artists are Jeffrey
Shaw(AUS/NL), Agnes Hegedus(H), Christine Kubisch(BRD), Jem Cohen(US),
Steina Vasulka(US) and Michael Saup(BRD).
Maquette Exhibition
A small maquette exhibition will be realized in cooperation with the
Technical University of Eindhoven(NL). The maquettes will show the change
in interpreting time and space in models in the last century. There will
be models of the military academy, road constructions and models from the
TU in Eindhoven. This exhibition will take place outside the V2 building.
For more information please contact:
V2 Organisation
Muntelstraat 23, 5211 PT 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Tel : 31-73-137958, Fax : 31-73-122238
LECTURE BY COLLIS H. DAVIS
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Wim van der Plas
ISEA organized a lecture on interactive cinema by Collis H. Davis of the
Ohio State University. The lecture took place in cooperation with, and at
the location of, Time Based Arts in Amsterdam, on August 14th. Ap-
proximately 20 people showed up for this interesting presentation.
Davis' project is called 'Elegba's Stratagem'. Feed back by the audience
can primarely be given through a speech recognition system. Interesting
was to hear of Collis' motivation for this project: "Black (american)
audiences tend to talk back at a movie they see in the cinema. So I wanted
to create 'back talk cinema'".
For more information on this project, contact Collis H. Davis, Dept of
Theater, Ohio State University, Haskett 156 W. 19th Ave., Columbus, OH
43210-1183, USA. Tel: 1-614-2926637,
Email: CHDAVIS@MAGN US.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
ISEA and Time Based Arts are discussing more cooperation in the future. We
will keep you informed.
STUDIO FOR CREATIVE INQUIRY
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Carl E. Loeffler
Networked Virtual Art Museum Technical Demonstration, to be conducted at
Expedition 92: Launching New Worlds of Learning, Munich, Germany,
September 10-11, 1992
The Networked Virtual Art Museum is a project directed by Carl Eugene
Loeffler, Research Fellow, at the Studio for Creative Inquiry, College of
Fine Arts, CMU. The pioneering project investigates telecommunications and
virtual reality, and provides a basis for multiple users located in
distant geographical locations to be conjoined in the same virtual,
immersion environment. The project employs telecommunication hardware, as
well as the hardware associated with virtual reality: data eyephones and
multi-directional navigation devices.
The immersion environment is an art museum, which contains galleries
offering exhibitions. The exhibition presented for the Munich
demonstration is conceived by Director Carl Eugene Loeffler and is
titled Fun House. While based on the traditional concept of the fun house,
the exhibition features advanced programming concepts such as agents with
Artificial Intelligence, mirrors offering reflections, and a game room
which explores gravity and other aspects of physics illustrated by thrown
objects.
Considered as a whole, the project is on the advancing edge of
telecommunications thru the exploration of immersion environments,
networked over long distance, while supporting multiple users. The use
of agents, and the articulation of physics and other details like
reflective mirrors, places the project at the forefront of the design
of virtual worlds.
The Networked Virtual Art Museum utilizes the WorldToolKit, a virtual
world development software, available from Sense8 Corporation. The
Virtual Research head mounted display, and the Ascension Technology
6-D mouse (The Bird), and 486/50 compatible with DVI and MIDI
comprise the basic system hardware.
The first public demonstration of the project will take place September
10-11, in conjunction with Expedition 92: Launching New Worlds of Lear-
ning, held in Munich, Germany., under the auspices of UNESCO and the
Commission of the European Community. Expedition 92 conducts two days of
keynote addresses, workshops, and technical demonstrations.Select par-
ticipants include: Michael Eisner, Manager, Disney World;Robert Jacobson,
Director, World Design; Myron Krueger, Producer,Artifical Reality; Kevin
McGee, MIT Media Lab; Siegmund Prillwitz,Director, Institute for Sign
Language; Kristina Hooper Woolsey,Director, MultiMedia Lab, Apple Com-
puter; among many others.
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Carl Eugene Loeffler, Project Director Telecommunications and Virtual
Reality, Studio for Creative Inquiry
College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University
Tel: (412) 268-3452, FAX: (412) 268-2829, Email: cel@andrew.cmu.edu
__________________________________________________________________________
Selected items from Fineart Forum , Volume 6 #8
and Leonardo Electronic News, August 15, 1992
The Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts contributes to Fineart Forum
and republishes the items on electronic art on behalf of its members.
FAF and LEN are published by the International Society for Art, Science
and Technology on behalf of The Art, Science and Technology Network.
__________________________________________________________________________
AI/MUSIC MEETINGS
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Eduardo Reck Miranda
The main purpose of the meetings is to discuss the possibilities of
AI applied to Music. The meetings are open for everyone interested.
Talk proposals are welcome.
Subject: "A Survey of Knowledge Representation:
From Sound Synthesis to Musical Activity"
Date : Thursday 27 August, 3.30pm, F13 Room - AI Dept. - South Bridge
Speaker: Eduardo Reck Miranda (Faculty of Music, University of Edinburgh,
Scotland - UK)
Subject: "AI-based musicology: two projects in Florence.
a) An Expert System Prototype for Time-Reduction and
b) Computer-Aided Analysis of Electroacoustic Music"
Date : Thursday 03 September, 3.30pm, Tutorial Room - Music Faculty -
Nicolson Square
Speaker: Francesco Giomi, Conservatorio di Musica L. Cherubini
Florence - Italy
For any information, please contact:
Eduardo Reck Miranda, University of Edinburgh, AI/Music Group
12 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh - EH8 9DF, Scotland - UK
Email : MIRANDA@UK.AC.ED.MUSIC
Abstracts are available in advance by request.
SOUND INSTALLATION
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Edward Osborn
"Zaku Zaku," an interactive sound installation by Ed Osborn will be shown
at the Southern Exposure Gallery, 17th and Alabama Streets, San Francisco,
CA, from July 31st to August 29th, 1992. Gallery hours are 12-5pm,
Wednesday-Saturday. The opening reception will be held Friday, July 31st,
6-8pm, and an artist's talk and performance will take place Saturday,
August 22nd at 4pm. All events are free and open to the public. For more
inf